Aging: Somatic Mutations, Epigenetic Drift and Gene Dosage Imbalance

Aging involves a progressive decline of metabolic function and an increased incidence of late-onset degenerative disorders and cancer. To a large extent, these processes are influenced by alterations affecting the integrity of genome architecture and, ultimately, its phenotypic expression. Despite the progress made towards establishing causal links between genomic and epigenomic changes and aging, mechanisms underlying metabolic dysregulation and age-related phenotypes remain obscure. Here, we present a model linking genome-wide changes and their age-related phenotypic consequences via the alteration of macromolecular complexes and cellular networks. This approach may provide a better understanding of the dynamically changing genome-phenome map with age, but also deeper insights to developing more targeted therapies to prevent and/or manage late-onset degenerative disorders as well as decelerate aging.